Leger's Luscious Amber

LEGER'S LUCIOUS PORTER
brewed by Kris Leger

The is a recipe adapted from a 5 gallon batch recipe from the Brew Your Own publication "30 Great Beer Styles" by Jamil Zainasheff. The style is the BJCP style 19A, American Amber Ale.

This batch requires an initial 3.00 gallons of water, from your local source. SPRING WATER IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. If you are using local water, a 1/2 Campden tablet (to remove chlorine) needs to added as the water is filling your pot, along with the addition of 0.25 oz of gypsum and 0.5 oz Calcium Chloride (Jim Boudreaux will provide the water salts and the Campden tablet, carefully measured out.

The Campden tablet is NOT needed if Spring Water is used, as this water is not chlorinated.

Add the water salts (and stir thoroughly), then add the malt extract as the pot is heating up, making sure you are stirring until all the extract is mixed in. Stir until everything is fully blended together.

Add the steeping grains now (in nylon small bag, provided by Jim Boudreaux). Allow water temperature to heat up to 170° F. THEN SHUT OFF HEAT AND REMOVE POT FROM THE BURNER.

After the 15 minute steep, REMOVE THE GRAINS FROM THE POT, and using a strainer, allow the bag to drain into a separate container. Add the boiling hops (0.25 oz.) provided in the mesh bag. NOW, put the pot back on the heat, and while stirring every so often, it will ramp up to a boil.

When temperature reaches the boil, maintain a full boil, but a moderate one. Add the drained grain bag liquid from the other container. This small amount of liquid contains aromatics and flavors that do not come from the extract, and every bit helps. It is best NOT to squeeze the bag, because this could cause extraction of undesirable tannins (tea bag taste).

When wort has been boiling for 30 min, add the 0.25 oz of Cascade hops (Hop Addition 1).

At 10 minutes before the end of the boil, add the 0.5 oz of Citra hops hop addition 2).

A 25% reduction in volume is expected to occur with the one hour boil. This is why 3 gallons is the initial volume of water.

A 5 gallon pot is ideal, stainless steel is best. There will be plenty of room in the pot to prevent boil-overs when using the 5 gallon pot.

Best way to chill is to put entire pot into a large pail of water and ice, WITH THE POT COVERED.

After the one-hour boil, remove the hop bags, then chill the wort. Continue the process of getting the wort into the sanitized Mr. Beer fermenter. As wort is going into the fermentor, allow it to splash around in order for the wort to absorb oxygen from the air. Don't completely fill the vessel, leave some head space.

PREPARING THE YEAST
(Do this while the wort is chilling)

Take the yeast packet out of the fridge either the night before or the morning of the brew day to let the temperature of the yeast packet rise to room temperature.

When wort is safely in fermenter, sprinkle the contents of the yeast packet into the Mr. Beer fermentor, and rock the closed fermentor back and forth, to mix in the yeast.

When fermentation is complete (usually takes about a week), prime and bottle as usual.